Improvement in safety-brakes for railroad-cars



l E i I i J m 1 1|: lll \\\\\\M I x Witnesses:

Inventor,

AM. PHDTO-LITND.B0. NNJQSBDRNES PROCESS.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK IVOLF, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN SAFETY-BRAKES FOR RAILROAD-CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 44,36 I dated September20, 1864.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, FREDERICK WOLF, of the city of Philadelphia, andState of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements inSafety-Brakes for City Passenger Railway-Oars; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanyin g drawings, and to the letters of referencemarked thereon, in which- Figure 1 is a birds-eye view of the cartruck.Fig. 2 is a side view of the same. Fig. 3 is a view of the slottedguide-plate D. Fig. 4 are views of the shoes of the brake.

Similar letters in the figures represent same parts.

The invention consists in providing for a city passenger railway-car asafety-brake, operated upon solely by an object or obstruction upon thetrack in front of the car-wheels, rendering it impossible to drag thecar over such obstruction.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe and explain its construction and operation.

By referring to the drawings, A represents the frame of the car-truck. BB is an additional frame, supported wholly upon the axles of thecar-wheels, and confined to its position by means of straps around theaxles. The object of placing this frame on the axles is, that thebrake-shoes may be independent of the car-springs and load, and willalways present the same height from the track when not in operation,which could not be if they were attached to the car-body or truck-frameA. Attached to the ends of this frame are the slotted or grooved platesD D. In these grooves e e are hung the self-acting shoes of the brakes CO by means of the rollers or studs a a. The shoes are held up free fromthe springs c 0. Should an object of light weight and small bulk be uponthe track, the movable or yielding broom b will displace it. An objectof greater bulk and weight will overcome the power of the spring 0 andforce the shoe against the track and partially under the wheel, therebylocking it and forcing the object forward until the momentum of the caris arrested. The object can now be removed shoe, being liberated, willinstantly resume its former position by the action of the spiral spring0. The movable or yielding broom I), as seen in Fig. 4, is attached tothe end of a bar inserted into the perpendicular socket O and adjustedto its proper height above the track by pins and slots d d. It might benecessary to regulate the height of the broom by a spring within thesocket.

in applying this safety-brake to a dummy or steam passenger-ear the shoe0 would require to be attached to the forward end of a car only. Fromthese shoes I propose a connection with a-throttle-valvein thesteam-pipe leading to the cylinder, so that by their action the steamwould be immediately cut off when an obstruction is placed in front ofthe wheels.

What I claim is 1. A self-acting shoe hung upon a stud or roller workingin a grooved or slotted plate, as shown and described, for the purposeset forth. a

2. Supporting the frame 13, to which are at tached the grooved orslotted guide-plates 1), by the axles of the car wheels, as and for thepurpose specified.

FREDERICK WVOLF.

Witnesses:

JONATHAN O. ANDERSON,

JoHN SHINN.

track and car-wheels by means of the spiral.

from the track, the car slightly backed, and the v

